


turn down all the noise

by Dienerys



Category: C-Pop, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friendship, M/M, Male Friendship, Platonic Cuddling, Sharing a Bed, basically zhu xingjie being a good ge, long live gramarie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:47:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25801579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dienerys/pseuds/Dienerys
Summary: They’re an odd little family, but they’re still a family and Xingjie decides he wouldn’t trade them for the world.
Relationships: Wang Linkai | Xiao Gui & Zhu Xingjie, Wang Linkai | Xiao Gui/Zhu Xingjie, Zhang Yankai & Zhu Xingjie, Zhou Yanchen & Zhu Xingjie, Zhou Yanchen/Zhu Xingjie, Zhu Xingjie/Zhang Yankai
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	turn down all the noise

**Author's Note:**

> i love the gramarie boys so much it makes me a soft smol bean

Xiao Gui’s name is called and Zhu Xingjie feels a wave of relief wash through him.

Three out of four members of his group made it through to the second round.

Xingjie embraces Xiao Gui, unable to hide the grin on his face.

He can’t help the pang of regret as he sees Zhang Yankai sitting alone in his row. The youngest of the group has a complicated expression on his face and Xingjie has a brief flicker of self-doubt over whether he had been an effective leader.

Yuehua had all made it. Qin’s had all made it. OACA had all made it.

But he also knows Yankai had wanted to go home. The pressure of the competition crushing the teenager and stripping him of his already weak self-confidence.

Really, quite cruel, and Xingjie wonders what Gramarie was thinking sending a sixteen year old. Sure there were other sixteen year olds, and he’s pretty sure one of Simply Joy’s trainees was even younger. But Xingjie wonders if he should have paid more attention to him, tried harder to make sure he was doing okay.

He’s a little annoyed at Wang Ziyi, seeing the entire contingent of Simply Joy trainees sans Ziyi still below the stage. He feels like Ziyi abandoned his group and maybe some of them would have done better if Ziyi had spent more time with them and worked with them more.

Xingjie remembers the first stage had Yankai crying quietly when he thought the others were asleep. Despite being only sixteen years old, maybe because he’s only sixteen years old, he has always kept everything bottled inside.

When he would have problems learning a dance, he would spend hours practicing on his own rather than ask for help. When he got re-graded to F and wasn’t allowed to dance on the stage, he hadn’t said anything.

It’s always been weird to Xingjie how, at twenty-four, he’s become responsible for a twenty-two year old who doesn’t know how to take care of himself, an eighteen year old who should probably be kept on a leash, and a barely-independent sixteen year old who tries too hard to be an adult.

He hadn’t even wanted to be a leader but for whatever reason, they had decided he was the most responsible when they were choosing which trainees to send to Dachang. Despite not having wanted the role, Xingjie was never one to shirk responsibility.

Therefore, when the youngest of his group started crying in the middle of the night, he had joined the youngest on his bunk startling the boy.

“Jie-ge,” Yankai had whispered, “I didn’t know you were awake”

“How could I sleep with your noisy sniffling?” Xingjie had said gruffly causing Yankai to snort. The boys are used to his method of showing affection. “What’s wrong?”

“I really hate my group, Jie-ge,” he had confessed to the elder, “we didn’t even want to be a group. We don’t get along. I hate the song. I want to go home”

Xingjie had sighed and wrapped his arm around the lanky teenager, pulling him close despite Yankai towering over him.

Yankai had been stiff for a moment but had eventually relaxed into Xingjie’s embrace, accepting the comfort, and had cried into his shoulder. The older trainee had combed his fingers through Yankai’s soft hair as Yankai’s shoulders shook.

He had been unsure how long it was before Yankai stopped crying. The young teenager’s breathing had slowed and Xingjie had realized, rather bemusedly, that the kid had fallen asleep on him.

With a sigh, Xingjie had shifted until he was in a more comfortable position and Yankai hadn’t even stirred from where his head was buried against Xingjie’s neck. Xingjie had wondered just how exhausted the kid was.

At that point Xingjie had given up on the idea of getting a decent night of sleep and had closed his eyes.

The next day, Yankai seemed to be in a slightly better mood and, never the most demonstrative, had even hugged Xingjie quickly before disappearing to the practice rooms.

Now, Yankai sits beneath the pyramid of chairs almost alone in his row. He has a complicated expression of mingled relief and disappointment on his face.

Xingjie has been on the broadcast circuit long enough to know that part of the reason Yankai is down there is because Yankai wants to be.

He tunes out the rest of Zhang PD’s speech and finds Zhou Yanchen and Xiao Gui.

Maybe he had neglected Yankai a bit. But between making sure Yanchen actually slept and keeping Xiao Gui from being kicked off the show due to his penchant for mischief, the quiet and relatively well-adjusted teenager was the least of his worries.

Maybe he should have worried more. Maybe if he had Yankai would have wanted to stay, worked harder to stay.

He barely hears Zhang PD announce the evaluation is over, and it’s not until Lin Chaoze nudges him out of the row that he realizes that it’s over.

Xingjie follows Yanchen as the latter makes a beeline for Yankai. Xingjie reaches the youngest first though because Yanchen is too nice and stops to talk to everyone.

Yankai looks up at him, dark eyes calm and far too wise for his sixteen years of age. He’s not sobbing or sniffling like some of the other trainees and Xingjie wishes that sometimes Yankai would act like the teenager he is.

“It’s okay, Jie-ge,” Yankai says quietly and Xingjie isn’t sure what the youngest is reading on his face, “I’m okay with going home”

Xingjie sighs and reaches out to ruffle his hair.

“You’d better not grow anymore while you’re there,” he threatens, “as your leader, I forbid you from getting any taller”

“Okay Jie-ge,” Yankai giggles. Yanchen pulls the younger boy up into a tight hug, squeezing him until Yankai whines.

“Don’t suffocate him, Yanchen,” Xingjie says as he tugs Yanchen’s sleeve in a half-hearted attempt to peel the other trainee off of the youngest before he squeezes him to death.

Yanchen releases him and Xiao Gui slings his arm around Yankai’s shoulder.

Eventually Yankai and Yanchen end up sitting side by side. Yanchen, always the most affectionate of them, had tangled their hands together between them. Yankai looks lighter as he laughs at something that Xiao Gui says and Xingjie realizes that maybe it’s for the best.

Filming ends and the trainees go back to their dorms to pack up.

Xingjie helps Yankai, while Xiao Gui hides his socks and Yanchen unhelpfully laughs.

Eventually, when it seems like more of Yankai’s clothes are finding their way out of his suitcase than in, Xingjie chases Xiao Gui and Yanchen out of the room ignoring Yanchen’s protests of how he’s not doing anything.

Xingjie shuts the door with a sigh.

“Jie-ge,” Yankai tugs his sleeve. Xingjie turns and looks up. Yankai drops his forehead on Xingjie’s shoulder, bending awkwardly to do so. “Thank you for being a good ge. I don’t think I would have stayed this long without you”

Xingjie feels his heart clench and he gently ruffles Yankai’s hair.

“I’ll see you back at Gramarie,” he replies, “keep working hard and show me how much you’ve improved when I come back, okay?”

He feels more than sees Yankai nod before pulling away. They finish packing quietly and without further chaos.

Eventually Yankai wanders off to find the friends he made in these past two months, leaving Xingjie alone in the room.

Xingjie slumps into the chair and heaves out a sigh, running his hand through his hair.

No one had told him being a leader was so exhausting. He feels a flicker of respect for Zhu Zhengting who has to deal with six of them, including Justin, Fan Chengcheng and Ding Zeren.

“Jie-ge?”

Xingjie looks up. Yanchen and Xiao Gui are hovering in front of him looking slightly concerned.

“I’m just tired,” he shakes his head. “It’s been a long day”

The other two agree but don’t seem to believe him even though they let it slide.

Xingjie is the first one in his bed and falls asleep to the sound of Xiao Gui quietly rapping to himself as he gets changed, the scratch of Yanchen’s pen on paper and Yankai making sure he has everything.

The way he went to bed is not the way he ends up waking up.

He’s pretty sure when he went to bed he was the only person in it. Now he’s waking up to Yanchen’s stupidly tall body curled against his side, Xiao Gui sprawled half on top of him and half on top of Yankai, who is curled around his other side.

How the other three managed to squeeze into Xingjie’s bed and without waking him up, he doesn’t know.

Normally he wakes up rather cold, but the radiating heat of three other bodies piled on his warms him almost to the point of heat stroke.

This isn’t normal Gramarie either. Yanchen is the most physically affectionate of them all, and the only one who initiates skinship of any sort. Yankai keeps completely to himself, too shy even around them to let himself go unless he’s exhausted, and Xiao Gui has his cool guy facade to uphold. Xingjie’s form of affection comes in rough hair ruffles and arm punches. This sort of cuddling is Yuehua’s style.

Despite that, he can’t help the fond smile that sneaks it’s way onto his face.

He never would have expected to become responsible for a twenty-two year old who doesn’t know how to take care of himself, an eighteen year old who should probably be kept on a leash, and a barely-independent sixteen year old who tries too hard to be an adult, but right now he really isn’t complaining.

They’re an odd little family, but they’re still a family and Xingjie decides he wouldn’t trade them for the world.

“Jie-ge...you look stupid when you smile like that,” Xiao Gui’s sleepy voice breaks the moment.

Yankai and Yanchen are unceremoniously awakened as Xingjie tries to grab Xiao Gui in a headlock.

Okay. Maybe he’d trade Xiao Gui.

**Author's Note:**

> i have nothing against ziyi. i just feel like he could’ve taken care of his labelmates a bit better and maybe they would’ve made it further. it was like there was simply joy and then there was wang ziyi.


End file.
